Hollywood’s Fascination with Shafts of Light

Hollywood’s always eaten itself, wearing hoary old tropes on its sleeve proudly. Think of the gorgeous dame who turns out to be nothing but trouble of a thousand noir thrillers or the Power Walk – when the heroes walk slowly towards the camera, shoulder to shoulder in a show of unity, strength and their intention to bust heads (you’ve seen it everywhere from The Wild Bunch to Transformers including a classic parody in Monsters, Inc.)

But here’s one you might not realise is so popular until you remember how many times you’ve seen it, the religious-tinged, almost orgasmic shaft of pulsating light into the sky. Nothing yells ‘climax’ like it, and here’s a random sample that barely scratches the surface.

You’ll notice a lot of the entires in this list are from more recent films. The reason is simply because shafts of light are a lot easier to program into your Maya workstation than hand animate. Somewhere a software engineer is making a killing out of a plug-in called ‘Climactic Shaft of Light into the Sky’.

8 The Last Airbender (2010)

When Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) find the resting place of the mythical Airbender Aang (Noah Ringver) in the ice, they awaken both Aang and his big pet flying dragon thingy. But they don’t just stand up shaking the ice off their heads. It cracks open with a huge beam of energy that shoots a piercing beam of light majestically into the sky.

9 Tron: Legacy (2010)

It’s a portal to the outside world, so what else would it be but a huge twine of light, a hundred beams of data and computer code gushing urgently into the air through a boarding platform somewhere deep in The Grid. Luckily for Sam (Garrett Hedlund) and Quorra (Olivia Wilde), the programmer-turned-digital-hippie-guru Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has more power than the evil CLU (young CGI Jeff Bridges) realises, holding him back while the young couple step into the beam to the escape.

MovieHole for the rest
xoxo
Carrie

Razzie Winners

Razzies 2011 winners: 'The Last Airbender,' 'Sex and the City 2' on top of the bottom

The Razzies handed out their golden non-kudos Feb. 26, the eve of the Oscars, and the night's two biggest winners losers were "The Last Airbender" and "Sex and the City 2."

"Airbender" scored 5 wins -- including one in the new category of "Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3-D" -- and "Sex and the City 2" came in a close second with 3 recognitions of failure.

Other notable recipients include "worst actor" Ashton Kutcher and "worst supporting actress"Jessica Alba for their appearances in multiple panned films. 

The full list of worsts below:  

Worst Picture
"The Bounty Hunter"
"The Last Airbender"
"Sex and the City 2"
"Twilight Saga: Eclipse"
"Vampires Suck"

Worst Actor
Jack Black, "Gulliver's Travels"
Gerard Butler, "The Bounty Hunter"
Ashton Kutcher, "Killers" and "Valentine's Day"
Taylor Lautner, "Eclipse" and "Valentine's Day"
Robert Pattinson, "Remember Me" and "Eclipse" 

Worst Actress
Jennifer Aniston, "The Bounty Hunter" and "The Switch" 
Mylie Cyrus, "The Last Song"
Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon "Sex and the City 2"
Megan Fox, "Jonah Hex"
Kristen Stewart, "Eclipse"

Worst Supporting Actress
Jessica Alba, "The Killer Inside Me," "Little Fockers," "Machete" and "Valentine's Day"
Cher, "Burlesque"
Liza Minnelli, "Sex and the City 2"
Nicola Peltz, "The Last Airbender"
Barbra Streisand, "Little Fockers"

Worst Supporting Actor
Billy Ray Cyrus, "The Spy Next Door" 
George Lopez, "Marmaduke," "The Spy Next Door" and "Valentine's Day" 
Dev Patel, "The Last Airbender"
Jackson Rathbone, "The Last Airbender," "Eclipse"
Rob Schneider, "Grown Ups" 

Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3-D
"Cats & Dogs 2: Revenge of Kitty Galore"
"Clash of the Titans"
"The Last Airbender"
"Nutcracker 3-D"
"Saw VII"

Worst Screen Couple/Screen Ensemble
Jennifer Aniston & Gerard Butler, "The Bounty Hunter" 
Josh Brolin's Face & Megan Fox's Accent, "Jonah Hex"
The entire cast of "The Last Airbender"
The entire cast of "Sex ad the City 2"
The entire cast of "Eclipse" 

Worst Director
Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, "Vampires Suck" 
Michael Patrick King, "Sex and the City 2" 
M. Night Shyamalan, "The Last Airbender" 
David Slade, "Eclipse" 
Sylvester Stallone, "The Expendables" 

Worst Screenplay
"The Last Airbender," written by M. Night Shyamalan
"Little Fockers," written by John Hamburg and Larry Stuckey
"Sex and the City 2" written by Michael Patrick King
"Eclipse", screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg
"Vampires Suck," written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel
"Clash of the Titans"
"The Last Airbender"
"Sex and the City 2"
"Eclipse"
"Vampires Suck"

zap2it
xoxo
Carrie

Virgin Media Movie Awards Nominations

Not all of the nominations are good.
Guy of the Year: Robert Pattinson
Girl of the Year: Kristen Stewart
Most Overrated Movie: Alice in Wonderland, Tron Legacy, Eclipse
Worst Movie: of the Year Burlesque, Tron Legacy, The Last Airbender
Worst Actor of the Year: Robert Pattinson
Worst Actress of the Year: Kristen Stewart
Best Action Movie of the Year: Scott Pilgrim
Best Comedy of the Year: Easy A
Coolest Fight of the Year: Tron Disc Battle, Ramona vs Roxy – Scott Pilgrim, Scott vs Matthew – Scott Pilgrim
Nastiest Villain Of The Year: Victoria – The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Clu 2.0 – Tron Legacy, Freddy – A Nightmare On Elm Street, Gideon Graves – Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, The Red Queen – Alice In Wonderland
Crappiest Couple Of The Year: R-Patz & Kristen – Twilight
Most Wanted 2011: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, X-Men: First Class
Most Awesome Movie Of The Year: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
virginmedia to vote
xoxo
Carrie

Box Office Champs of 2010

With a total box office bonanza of $10 billion in U.S. ticket sales, it's pretty clear Americans wholeheartedly went to the movies in 2010. The big studio winner was Warner Bros., with $1.8 billion in proceeds from films like "Inception" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I."

Here's the rest of the box office hits of 2010...counting down from 25 to No. 1.

20. 'Valentine's Day' (Warner Bros.)

Total gross: $110,485,654

Best quote: “My closest relationship is with my Blackberry. Thank god it vibrates!” — Kara Monahan (Jessica Biel)

15. 'The Last Airbender' (Paramount)

Total gross: $131,601,062

Best quote: “It was not by chance that for generations people have been searching for him, and now you have found him. Your destinies are tied, Zuko.” — Uncle Iroh (Shaun Toub)

4. 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse' (Summit Ent.)

Total gross: $300,531,751

Best quote: “This wasn’t a choice between you and Jacob. It was between who I should be and who I am. I’ve always felt out of step. Like literally stumbling through my life. I’ve never felt normal, because I’m not normal, and I don’t wanna be. I’ve had to face death and loss and pain in your world, but I’ve also never felt stronger, like more real, more myself, because it’s my world too. It’s where I belong.” — Bella (Kristen Stewart)

2. 'Alice in Wonderland' (Disney)

Total gross: $334,191,110

Best quote: “There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it, you need to be as mad as a hatter. Which luckily I am!” — the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp)

ExtraTV for the rest
xoxo
Carrie

MTV: 2010 in 60 Seconds

MTV Shows

MTV
xoxo
Carrie

'Top Twitter Trends in 2010'

MOVIES

1. Inception
2. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
4. Despicable Me
5. Karate Kid
6. The Last Airbender
7. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
8. The Expendables
9. The Chronicles of Narnia
10. Paranormal Activity 2

yearinreview.twitter for the other categories
xoxo
Carrie

THE LAST AIRBENDER Blu-ray Review

Oh, M. Night Shyamalan. You made The Sixth Sense, and the world was ready to declare you the new Spielberg, the new Hitchcock. And your follow ups had fans. Unbreakable, Signs. People liked these movies, but they didn’t have that Barton Fink feeling. But the next three films (The Village, The Lady in the Water and The Happening) kept getting worse and worse, with star Mark Wahlberg recently decrying The Happening as terrible. But with The Last Airbender writer/director M. Night was finally adapting material, which (one hoped) might get his head back in the game. Based on the Nickelodeon cartoon, there was a great story there and there was hope he might rebound. Noah Ringer stars as Aang, a mythical trained “bender” who can fight using air, water, fire and earth, and is called the last Avatar. He’s joined by water bender Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) in protecting him from an evil Fire Lord army (which features Dev Patel, Cliss Curtis and Aasif Mandvi) that are bent on world domination. And my review of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Aang has been imprisoned in ice for nearly a century when he’s woken up and freed by Katara. Such alerts Fire bender Prince Zuko (Patel) to their location and the race is on to get Aang to a safe place as he supposedly has the ability to stop the war, as he’s something of aLuke Skywalker/prophecy figure. The monks he trained with were all slaughtered, so over the years he’s become viewed partly as a myth. The fire benders are after him, and Katara is a novice in her bending, so they take him around to find a place where he can learn as his training was incomplete. But because he was asleep in the ice for a century he is reticent to accept his long absence. Prince Zuko has an awkward relationship with his father  (Curtis) – he’s on the outs and finding the Avatar (as Aang is called) would redeem his name – and he’s taunted by commander Zhao (Mandvi) for not being super awesome. Of course, this is all going to lead to a showdown, but this is supposed to a be a franchise starter, so it only gets so close to a conclusion that wraps everything up, and in fact the ending sets up the next sequel (if there is to be one).

Pretty much everything that could go wrong here went wrong here, and M. Night Shyamalan will likely not be continuing the franchise. The film went through a hasty post-conversion to 3-D process for theatrical release, and though I did not see the film that way it was supposedly hard to watch. Regardless of how many dimensions the film is projected in nothing works. The child actors are modest in their talents, and the film never comes across as a world built – even some shots that may have been practical looked CGI’d. Dev Patel was charming in Slumdog Millionaire, but here he’s cast adrift, and for Daily Show watchers, Mandvi’s performance is mostly camp villainy without great threat. For a movie that runs only a little over a hundred minutes, there’s a whole boatload of backstory that’s ladled out over the entire first half that drags the film to a deadly lurch, so even when things do pick up, the film has already lost. There’s little energy, and Shyamalan does nothing to enliven things with his action sequences that never rise above amateurish. There’s no magic in a film about magic. This is a complete and utter botch, and having some familiarity with the source material, it’s even more shocking what a misfire this is. But Shyamalan has been off his game for a while now, and he’s not being particularly cinematically clever. This has a workman’s touch, and it should have never been this boring.

Paramount’s Blu-ray comes with the film in widescreen (2.35:1) and English 5.1 DTS-HD surround. The presentation is excellent. The film also comes with a DVD version and Digital copy. The film comes with a PIP track that runs through most of the film with interviews and commentary from the cast and filmmakers. This is supplemented by a behind the scenes documentary on the making of the film (58 min.), which is followed by a piece that focuses on one of the set pieces (19 min.) that’s a huge battle. “Origins of the Avatar” (8 min.) gives the cartoon its due, while “Katara for a Day” (6 min.) puts the spotlight on Nicola Peltz on the set during one day of shooting. There are also four nothing deleted scenes (11 min.) and a gag reel (4 min.).

Collider
xoxo
Carrie

The Last Airbender contest

We have (5) The Last Airbender prize packs to giveaway!

(1) Grand Prize Winner Will Receive
- (1) copy of The Last Airbender (signed by Jackson Rathbone) combined with S1, Ch. 1-5 of the popular Nickelodeon original animated series the film is based on, Avatar: The Last Airbender to give away!

(4) Runner Up's Will Receive
- (1) copy of The Last Airbender combined with S1, Ch. 1-5 of the popular Nickelodeon original animated series the film is based on, Avatar: The Last Airbender to give away!

You'll have to be a member of FanBolt to enter (with 25 posts on our forums between the time this contest starts and ends on December 12th. ), and it's totally free! So if you're reading this and haven't registered yet, you can do so by clicking here! If you're not a member, then the entry form won't even appear for you until you're logged in. All entries are checked against our member database, so if you submit an invalid entry, it will be deleted.

You can enter to win only one time! If we receive multiple entries from a member, they will be disqualified. If you have any questions or comments on the contest, feel free to email Emma@fanbolt.com.

Contest Start Date: November 17, 2010
Contest End Date: December 12, 2010

Description: Director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) brings to life the extraordinary journey of an unlikely hero called upon to save his world in THE LAST AIRBENDER, arriving in a DVD/Blu-ray Combo pack, single disc DVD and single disc Blu-ray on November 16, 2010 from Paramount Home Entertainment. Based on the hugely successful animated TV series "Avatar: The Last Airbender", the exciting live-action film from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies tells the story of four nations, Air, Water, Earth and Fire, locked in an age-old conflict that can only be ended by the Avatar - a single boy with the power to manipulate all four elements. Earning more than $315 million at the global box office to become one of the top 10 family films of the year worldwide, this inspirational adventure features newcomer Noah Ringer (Cowboys & Aliens) as Aang, the lone Avatar, with Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Jackson Rathbone (Twilight saga) and Nicola Peltz (Deck The Halls). From the producers of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park, THE LAST AIRBENDER delivers spectacular visual effects, exotic lands and magical creatures with the uplifting message that anyone can be a hero.

Become The Avatar App
www.becometheavatar.com
Upload a personal photo and become the Avatar! You can print your image as a poster, share with friends or customize your Blu-ray or DVD cover, which is great for gift giving for kids around the holidays. Plus, get special savings of $5 off the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack!

Official Link: Official Site

You can enter this contest by filling out the form below! This contest will stay open until December 12, 2010, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter! Good luck to everyone!

Entry Form
You must be a member of FanBolt and be logged in to see the entry form and enter the contest. If you haven't yet registered for FanBolt, you can do so here.

fanbolt

~Robstenfan

Behind The Scenes Of 'The Last Airbender'(video)

lastairbenderfans.com. via twilightladies

~Robstenfan

MovieFone End of Summer Polls

Eclipse and the Twilight Cast are up in some polls for this Summer.

End of Summer Movies Poll: Vote for the Best Films, Stars and Moments of the Season

Summer is winding down, and as we prepare for the fall movie season, we're taking one last look at the past three months at the theater.

Some have argued that this was the worst summer movie season in years, but with the mind-blowing 'Inception,' the Jacob-Bella-Edward love triangle in 'Eclipse' and the uber-success of 'Toy Story 3,' there were still a number of quality flicks for everyone to choose from.

But which films came out on top? Have your say in our official end of summer movies poll.

Which movie was most worth your cash?

'The Expendables''Inception''Iron Man 2''Toy Story 3'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'

Which movie was least worth your cash?

'The A-Team''Jonah Hex''The Last Airbender''Prince of Persia''Sex and the City 2'

What was the best chick flick?

'Eat Pray Love''Letters to Juliet''Sex and the City 2''Step Up 3-D''The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'

Who was summer's sexiest woman?

Megan Fox, 'Jonah Hex'Scarlett Johansson, 'Iron Man 2'Angelina Jolie, 'Salt'Eva Mendes, 'The Other Guys'Kristen Stewart, 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'

Who was summer's hottest leading man?

Javier Bardem, 'Eat Pray Love'Robert Downey Jr., 'Iron Man 2'Zac Efron, 'Charlie St. Cloud'Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 'Inception'Taylor Lautner, 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'Robert Pattinson, 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'

Who was your favorite on-screen couple?

Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, 'Eat Pray Love'Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, 'Iron Man 2'Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, 'The Kids Are All Right'Will Ferrell and Eva Mendes, 'The Other Guys'Barbie and Ken, 'Toy Story 3'Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'

What was the summer's best sequel/prequel?

'Iron Man 2''Shrek Forever After''Step Up 3-D''The Twilight Saga: Eclipse''Toy Story 3'

What highly anticipated movie was most disappointing?

'The A-Team''The Last Airbender''Prince of Persia''Robin Hood''Sex and the City 2'

What was the best gasp-worthy moment?

'Inception's' cliffhanger endingSamuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson miss their mark, 'The Other Guys'Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber's final face-off, 'Salt'The toys run from the incinerator, 'Toy Story 3'Bella and Jacob kiss, 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'

Source to vote
xoxo
Carrie